Adelida Broussau took a big chance by saying she was Rueben Hamilton's new bride. But even a rat will stand up and fight when it's cornered and she was surely feeling the pinch of being pushed in the corner. Her sister, Maria, was dead. Her sorry, Yankee loving brother-in-law, Victor, had issued her an ultimatum to be out of N... ew Orleans by night, or else; then stole the rest of her money so she couldn't leave. Then there was Rueben, hit on the head for attempting to thwart a bank robbery, his memory gone and leavingtown that very day. All she had to do was say she was truly his wife. Everyone in the chaos after the robbery already thought they were newlyweds. So she took a big chance andlet them go right on believing she was.
Rueben Hamilton went to New Orleans from southern Pennsylvania at the request of the President of the United States to help with the reconstruction of Louisiana after the Civil War. He'd gone into the bank to finish his business before boarding The Queen for the first leg of his journey home. He didn't remember the bank robbery. All he remembered was awakingwith a headache, no memory, and a wife fresh from the Acadian bayou country. None of it made a bit of sense.
It was supposed to take a month for them to reach Love's Valley, an obscure little valley near Shirleysburg, Pennsylvania. That was if everything went according to plan and Rueben's memory didn't return; if he didn't toss Adelida off at the next port of call to fend for herself, or worse,throw her overboard. But fate played her hand and dealt the two of them some unforeseen cards that turned their world upside down.
Their hearts didn't care that there'd been a war and it was the worst possible time for a Yankee soldier and a Louisiana bayou woman to fall in love. But listening to the stirrings of hearts bound for love isn't an easy thing to do.read more
BIOGRAPHY Carolyn Brown is a New York Times, USA Today, Wall Street Journal, Publisher’s
Weekly and #1 Amazon and #1 Washington Post bestselling author. She is the author of
more than 100 novels and several novellas. She’s a recipient of the Bookseller’s Best
Award, Montlake Romance’s prestigious Montlake Diamond A... ward, and also a three-
time recipient of the National Reader’s Choice Award. Brown has been published for
more than 25 years, and her books have been translated 21 foreign languages, and have
sold more than 10 million copies worldwide.
When she’s not writing, she likes to plot new stories in her backyard with her tom cat,
Boots Randolph Terminator Outlaw, who protects the yard from all kinds of wicked
varmints like crickets, locusts, and spiders. Visit her at www.carolynbrownbooks.com.read more